CAIRO: The sinking of an aging ferry carrying more than 1,400 people in the Red Sea, one of the worst maritime disasters in recent history, could revive an old project for a bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Close to 1,000 people were feared dead Sunday, two days after the ferry went down in the middle of the Red Sea as it crossed between the Saudi port of Duba and Safaga in Egypt.
The project of a causeway or suspension bridge linking the two countries over the Gulf of Aqaba would creat a new route for trade, tourists and pilgrims. It has been an oft-recurring idea over the past 20 years.
The Al-Salam Maritime Transport company, which owns the sunken ship, says it carries a million passengers each year on 15 different ferries, several of which are old and have been modified to increase capacity.
Between 50,000 to 70,000 Egyptians go on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and an estimated 1.2 million Egyptians work in Saudi Arabia or in other Gulf countries, mainly as construction workers.
The bridge would link the southern tip of Egypt s Sinai Peninsula, north of the resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, to Ras Hamid in Saudi Arabia, across the Tiran straits. Another project had also looked into the possibility of bridge further north across the Gulf of Aqaba.
The 15-kilometer (nine-mile) bridge would cost an estimated $3 billion and take around five years to build, according to experts.
This project never really left the drawing board but it is totally feasible. The bridge wouldn t be too long and the relatively shallow sea in that area allows for such a construction, said Ibrahim Kamel, an Egyptian architect and businessman.
The project initially drafted in 1982 had been unearthed in 1991 after the sinking of the Salem Express between the Saudi port of Jeddah and the same port of Safaga, leaving some 500 people dead.
The main problem is that it s a very sensitive and strategic area, not the least because Israel is very close, Kamel told AFP. It would imply a major round of multilateral consultations.
The Gulf of Aqaba, which runs along the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula, commands Israel s and Jordan s access to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The loss of the Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 has rekindled a debate on the double standards in safety procedures affecting the security of maritime travel in the developing world.
The sinking of the Egyptian ferry on Friday was most likely the result of negligence at some level. These things are avoidable and I m not sure this accident will revive the bridge project, Kamel said. But why not? AFP
